Silicon Quantum Dots

Silicon quantum dots are nano-sized silicon crystals usually capped with a layer of silicon dioxide or organic ligands. There is a manifold of fabrication methods out there, some more suitable for mass production, others preferable for low areal density deposition. Chemical synthesis has been recently developed allowing for the fabrication of relatively large quantities. Previously we collaborated with Prof. Veinot group from Canada performing optical characterization on colloids of silicon nanocrystals, such as quantum yield measurements:

Single Dot Studies

Here we have traditionally been using a top-down approach – starting off with bulk material and working our way down – that utilizes electron beam lithography, deep reactive ion etching and oxidation. Like that, we obtain single silicon nanocrystals with large spacing in order to enable optical measurements on single quantum dots. Below is an international conference presentation from 2021 summarizing our work in this field: